This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Part of what makes the world of the Wii so special is the existence of Miis (Mii is pronounced "me"), which are little cartoon characters that represent you in the Wii universe. Miis can be anything you want them to be, so you can design them to look as much—or as little—like you as your heart desires. If you want, you can make a different Mii for every day of the week, or if you're feeling really avant-garde, you can create a Mii that represents both the male and female aspects of your personality.

In other words, when it comes to creating Miis, the sky is the limit. This chapter is here to show you how to squeeze every last drop of creativity out of Miis in the Wii universe.

NOTE

Everything that happens directly with Miis, with the exception of attaching Miis to emails that you send out of the main Wii screen, happens in the Mii Channel. Therefore, whatever I discuss in this chapter relates to the Mii Channel unless I note otherwise.

Why Mii?

If you haven't spent a fair bit of time with a Wii, no doubt you wonder why Miis populate the Wii in the first place. That's a good question. But when you start playing some games on the Wii, toying with software, and communicating with your friends and acquaintances via Wii Mail, you soon realize why Miis play a special role in making the Wii such an engaging machine.

Miis are recordkeepers for many games and activities that you play and enjoy on the Wii. When you play Wii Sports games, for example, the onscreen characters are pulled directly from Mii Plaza (Figure 4.1). In Wii Sports Baseball, for example, characters from Mii Plaza are used as fielders and batters. This feature adds an air of familiarity to many of the games you play on the Wii, making extra fun for individual players when their Miis are the focus of attention.

Miis are an important part of allowing you to identify with the onscreen actions of the Wii; they give you a sense of ownership that other consoles just don't provide. When you vote in the Everybody Votes Channel, you vote with your personally created Mii (Figure 4.2). This sort of connection with the games and activities makes Miis an integral part of the Wii's success.

Figure 4.2 In the Everybody Votes Channel, Miis are used as the voters.